“We need more staff and less fi nancial cuts to take this battle to the criminals.”

Guys Marsh is a category C jail near Shaftesbury with room for 578 inmates.

In 2015 it was identifi ed as “a prison in crisis” by the HM Prisons Inspectorate.

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Infamous Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs escaped from Wandworth prison in 1965 and lived as a fugitive for more than 36 years, he returned to the UK in 2001 where he was arrested on arrival

A report found levels of violence in the prison were very high and many prisoners were frightened.

The violence was said to be driven by the supply of drugs, particularly synthetic cannabinoids which led to debts which were enforced by violence or threats of violence to prisoners or their family outside the jail.

The Daily Star Sunday recently revealed that last year lags carried out more than 13,000 attacks on staff and other inmates in Britain’s prisons.

The assaults led to prisoners having an extra 215,000 days added to their sentences – the highest number for four years.